Restructuring Python ports?

[Neil]

On Fri, Jan 2, 2009 at 8:48 AM, Randall Wood
<randall.h.wood at alexandriasoftware.com> wrote:
> I would like to suggest the following:
>
> That for each version of python (pythonxy), there be the following ports:
>
> pythonxy, which installs nothing (maybe a readme file so that macports can
> consider it installed), but which depends on the following:
>
> pythonxy-core, which is analogous to the current python24 and python25
> ports,
>
> pyxy-whatever, which, when all pyxy-whatever ports are installed, provide a
> complete basic python installation of the core modules. (I'm not suggesting
> that every pyxy-* port be installed, only those which are required to
> provide the disabled modules)
>
> We may also want to provide a pythonxy-x11 or pythonxy-core-gui port which
> would include the basic python tk/x11 gui capabilities so that pythonxy-core
> does not include an X11 dependency.
>
> This may provide an advantage over throwing everything into a single port in
> that it would allow the pyxy-whatever ports to be updated independently of
> the pythonxy-core port if they need to be.
>
[snip]

Why not just take advantage of variants?

We could have python##, with three variants:
minimal: just the basic python stuff (ie. python-core)
normal: most, but not all, of the dependencies, as in FreeBSD
full: a full standard installation, with all deps

And then just make the normal variant the default.